Roll of Honor Book Online of Pre-WW II Military Personnel Buried in the Cemeteries of Cook County, IL

I noticed a small mention made in the Chicago Genealogist, the newsletter of the Chicago Genealogy Society, of a web site that provided online access to images and the online ability to search a book that has been digitized by the Allen County Public Library of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The book basically lists all of the pre-World War II military veterans that are buried in Cook County, IL. The material came from the following long title of the book known as The Roll of Honor, Containing the Names of Soldiers, Sailors and Marines of All the Wars of Our Country Who Are Buried in the Cemeteries of Cook County. The author of the book is Eli Robert Lewis. The book was published in 1922.

Because I do not have an actual copy of the book, I am uncertain as to the scope of this project that created the book. I am not sure where this material was obtained by the author or how inclusive the number of Cook County cemeteries really is.

Nonetheless, this appears to be a great online resource for anyone that may have Chicago/Cook County, IL ancestors that were in the military and were buried in Cook County, IL after their death.

You will see a large list of cemeteries you can search individually or you can search all of them if you scroll down the bottom of the page. If you browse the cemeteries and look at the material you will see scanned images of the actual pages of the source book. Once you select the cemetery to view, it does appear that the surnames are in alphabetical order so you can look to the spot you expect to see a name.

You can also just browse through the material page by page by using the Backward or the Forward arrows on the page.

If you search the entire file and get some hits on the name entered, you will be able to select the linked page where the material occurs and it will take you to an image of the page itself. The name will NOT be highlighted on the page you see but just visually scroll down looking for the surname you searched.

You will find the following information on the deceased service person in the image of the page:

First Name, Middle Initial (If Available) and Surname of the deceased.

Their Rank if Available

Company Served In If Available

Military Unit If Available

Date of Death If Available

Grave Number If Available

Lot Number If Available

Block Section If Available

There is some good information Just browsing through many pages you may find more often than not just the name of the person and the cemetery burial information. There did seem to be many gaps on the military information when you look through it.

Perhaps you will have luck and discover an ancestor in here with full information shown.

There are some tips at the bottom of the web page to offer search suggestions.

I could not find any information indicating how many names are contained within the book or the searchable database.

This is a very nice resource for your Cook County, IL military research on deceased military personnel buried within the county, having died prior to 1922 when the book was published.

Give the site a try to see if you have any luck discovering an ancestral military person buried in Cook County, IL.